## TELEGRAM TO L. D. TROTSKY

[October 23, 1918]

Today Stalin arrived and brought news of three major victories of our forces near Tsaritsyn; one victory 10 versts from Tsaritsyn, another — the destruction of 4 enemy regiments by the steppe army at Svetly Yar, which, as it turns out, was called up by the Tsaritsyn workers, and a third — near Muzga, where likewise 4 enemy regiments were destroyed.

Stalin has convinced Voroshilov and Minin,² whom he considers very valuable and irreplaceable workers, not to leave and to render full obedience to the orders of the Center; the sole reason for their discontent, according to him, is the extreme tardiness and non-delivery of shells and cartridges, from which the two-hundred-thousand strong and excellently-disposed Caucasian army is also perishing.

Stalin very much desires to work on the Southern Front; he expresses great apprehension that people little acquainted with this front will make mistakes, numerous examples of which he cites. Stalin hopes that through his work he will be able to convince [us] of the correctness of his view, and does not set an ultimatum regarding the removal of Sytin and Mekhonoshín,³ agreeing to work together with them in the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front, and also expressing a desire to be a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

In communicating to you, Lev Davidovich, all these statements of Stalin's, I ask you to consider them and answer, first, whether you are willing to explain yourself personally with Stalin, for which purpose he is prepared to come, and secondly, whether you consider it possible, on known concrete conditions, to eliminate former friction and establish joint work, which Stalin so desires.

As for myself, I believe that it is necessary to exert all efforts to establish joint work with Stalin.

¹ The present telegram of V. I. Lenin was occasioned by grave concern regarding the state of affairs on the Southern Front. By a decree of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic of September 17, 1918, I. V. Stalin, S. K. Minin, the commander of the front P. P. Sytin, and the assistant commander K. E. Voroshilov were appointed to the Revolutionary Military Council of the front. Later K. A. Mekhonoshín was also introduced into the Revolutionary Military Council of the front. Between Stalin, Minin and Voroshilov, on the one hand, and Sytin and Mekhonoshín, on the other, sharp disagreements arose from the very beginning. Their substance consisted in the unwillingness of the Tsaritsyn workers to reckon with the Party line on the utilization of old military specialists in the building of the Red Army, in attempts to introduce collective management of troops which the Party had rejected. On October 2 the Central Committee of the RCP(b) discussed the question of the subordination of all Party workers to the decisions of the central organs. In connection with this, Y. M. Sverdlov on the same day telegraphed Stalin, Voroshilov and Minin in Tsaritsyn: "All decisions of the Revolutionary Military Council are binding for the Military Councils of the fronts. Without subordination there is no unified army. Without suspending the execution of the decision, one can appeal it to a higher organ — the Council of People's Commissars or the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, in the extreme case — the Central Committee. We urgently propose that the decisions of the Revolutionary Military Council be carried out... There should be no conflicts" (Y. M. Sverdlov. Selected Works, vol. 3, M., 1960, p. 28).

The conflict that arose in the Revolutionary Military Council had an extremely negative effect on the combat capability of the Southern Front, whose position in the autumn of 1918 was exceptionally grave. Trotsky, as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, instead of speedily settling the conflict on the basis of the norms of mutual relations adopted in the Party, repeatedly allowed himself rudeness and extreme disloyalty toward the Tsaritsyn workers. In connection with this, Stalin, Minin and Voroshilov telegraphed the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Party Central Committee: "The conversation with Trotsky was very brief, deliberately insulting, in logical content — incomprehensible. The conversation was cut short by Trotsky..." (Central Party Archive, Institute of Marxism-Leninism at the CC CPSU).

Lenin's recommendations were not carried out by Trotsky.

In order to correct the situation, a new Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Front was formed consisting of the commander of the front P. P. Sytin and members of the Council K. A. Mekhonoshín and B. V. Legran.

On October 19 I. V. Stalin departed for Moscow. After a conversation with him, V. I. Lenin wrote the telegram being published here.

On January 1, 1919, the Party Central Committee and the Council of Defense adopted a decision on the appointment of I. V. Stalin and F. E. Dzerzhinsky to a Party investigation commission to clarify the reasons for the surrender of Perm. In connection with this, I. V. Stalin departed for the Eastern Front.

² S. K. Minin — from 1917 engaged in leading work in Tsaritsyn. During the civil war he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 10th Army, a member of the collegium of the NKVD.

³ P. P. Sytin — a general of the old army who went over to the side of Soviet power after the October Revolution. In 1918 he was commander of the Southern Front, head of the military-administrative department of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

K. A. Mekhonoshín — in 1918 a member of the All-Russian collegium for the formation of the Red Army, subsequently a member of the Revolutionary Military Councils of the Eastern, Southern and Caspian-Caucasian Fronts, a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic.

## NOTE OF A. S. ENULIDZE

November 4, 1918

Comrade Enulidze,

I request that you issue a guest pass to the bearer of this, Comrade Vorontsov, for the right to attend sessions of the VI Congress of Soviets.³

Lenin